


The Long Dance

by jasminemai



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, blame the olympics
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-20
Updated: 2018-03-13
Packaged: 2019-03-21 17:45:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13746072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jasminemai/pseuds/jasminemai
Summary: He holds her hand for the first time two days after he turns nine. It's soft and warm and he thinks he'd like to hold her hand forever.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I've fallen down the virtuemoir hole and this is the result. Will be part of a series because otherwise this will turn into a monster of a one shot. 
> 
> If you haven't heard about them they're an absolutely stunning ice dance pair from Canada. Check them out if you want to learn more!

He holds her hand for the first time two days after he turns nine. She’s his pairs partner, his coach tells him, they’re going to be training together three days a week until competition season and then they’ll go up to five times a week. Oliver might be young, but he can hear the veiled threat in Coach Slade’s voice; he and his new partner are going to be spending a lot of time together over the next twelve months so they’d better play nice.

Practising with Felicity was different then practising by himself. When he was by himself, he could slip into his own little world, away from his disapproving parents and the large and empty house that he spent most of his time in alone.

He didn’t have the luxury of going off in his own little world with Felicity. Instead he had to make sure he wouldn’t skate into her, and she wouldn’t skate into him, and that he had her back. That was the most important lesson Slade was teaching them.

“The rest of the world outside of that rink doesn’t matter when you’re performing kid, it’s just you and her. No one is going to have your back like she will, and no one will have her back like you will,” Slade levels him with a hard look when Oliver had begun to complain about having to ice dance with a girl. “Are we clear?”

Oliver nodded mutely before skating off to join Felicity in the centre of the rink.

“We should get ice cream once we finish practise,” Oliver holds out his hand towards her. “I know the best place for ice-cream in town.”

Felicity beams in return taking his hand in her own. “I’d like that.”

**

 Felicity Smoak is ten when she receives her first kiss.

Despite having spent the last three years ice dancing with Oliver, she was determined to have other interests outside of skating. She and Oliver were considered athletes now, and while that was cool, she didn’t want to have nothing if something bad happened and she couldn’t ever skate again.

So, one day she and her father had sat down in their living room and taken apart a computer. That day ignited a love of science and technology, something so different to the creative artsy world she had spent most of her childhood in. The following Monday she had signed up for the school science camp that would take place during the time she had off from skating.

“I thought you were leaving today?” She hears Oliver call out as she finishes off her twizzles. “What are you doing here?”

“I just wanted to get one last practise in,” she explains to him. She skids to a stop at the gate where he’s waiting for her, his arms crossed over his chest. “Sorry I didn’t tell you.”

“Nah, I get it, you wanted some alone time,” he laughs it off with a smirk. Oliver jumps the fence and slides around a little. “But now that I’m here.”

She giggles a little at his antics. “I was actually just leaving now. The bus leaves at midday.”

“You sounds nervous,” Oliver points out. “You look a little queasy.”

“I’m both,” she replies softly ringing her gloved hands.

“What are you nervous about?” Oliver questions.

Felicity shrugs a little. “That I’m not going to smart enough for the rest of them. I spend more time on the ice then I do studying and I’m probably going to be behind them as well.”

“What else are you nervous about?”

“That you’ll forget about me. I know it’s only a month but I’m used to seeing you every day and what if you replace me with Laurel or Sara? They’re prettier and less dorky and they’re not going away on science camp-”

Suddenly, Oliver’s lips are on hers and she freezes, not really sure what to do. She’s never been kissed before, hasn’t really had time to think about the whole kissing boys thing like Laurel and Sara have. So she stands there until Oliver pulls away to look at her. She can feel the heat rise to her cheeks as he studies her with the softest look she’s ever seen on him.

“I don’t want any other partner but you, Felicity Meghan Smoak, so you’d better come back loving ice dance still otherwise we’re going to have a problem,” Oliver whispers to her, his breathing blowing softly across her face with the lack of space between them. She nods mutely acknowledging his words and taking his hand as her promise.

A few hours later, after they’ve practised a little, he takes her to the bus and waves her off to science camp.

**

The first time he drives his brand new car after getting his license, he has to drive Felicity to a doctors appointment. It’d been his fault, so he knew he couldn’t really complain about being her personal taxi, but it was still mildly frustrating.

“I’m sorry you have to take me everywhere, Taxi Man,” Felicity murmurs from her eat next to him. It’s freezing out, even more so in her flimsy leotard so he’d dropped her in every jumper and jacket he owned.

“I dropped you, it’s fine,” he assures her, patting her shoulder a few times while trying to concentrate on the road.

“I know, but I also know you wanted to take Laurel out for a drive with you the first time you drove solo, so I’m sorry for that,” she replies, shrugging out of his touch to press her head against the window. “She likes you, you know, Laurel? She’s got a massive crush on you, she keeps telling me and Sara that you’re going to take her to the Prom next year and you’ll be her first official boyfriend.”

He feels his cheeks go red at Felicity’s words. He wasn’t blind, he knew that the other girls they practised with had crushes on him, and he couldn’t ignore that he skated with some very attractive girls. Sure he’d wanted to show off for Laurel at first, he’d realised the moment he lost his grip on Felicity that he couldn’t have any distractions at this point in their careers. They were about to go to into their second competition and Felicity had given up a college scholarship in order to compete. The least he could do was be by her side every step of the way.

“I don’t know if that’s going to be happening,” he tells her. “We really don’t have time for dating and stuff. The competition has to come first right?”

Felicity hums in agreement. “For sure. Skating only.”

**

She gets drunk for the first time when she’s fifteen and at a party with Oliver and their new coaches son, Tommy Merlyn. Slade had been good for when they were kids but Oliver and Felicity had decided they wanted to push themselves harder and further in professional ice dancing. Malcom Merlyn had been the perfect candidate for them with his eye for detail and total disregard for anything other than their skating. With Slade they had been children, with Malcom they were treated as professional athletes.

It was no surprise to anyone that upon meeting Tommy and Oliver had hit it off as friends. They began getting into trouble together; partying together, hooking up with girls and lots and lots of drinking. If Felicity didn’t know Oliver, she would have assumed he’d be going off the rails by now.

“You having a good time Smoak?” Tommy asks, pulling her into his side with one arm, while the other clutches his beer. “Coz Ollie and I didn’t bring you out just so you could mope in the corner.”

“I’m having fun,” she replies holding up her beer as proof. “It’s my second one.”

Tommy chuckles at her, leading them away from the kitchen and back into the living room. “I find that very reassuring. But if anyone offers you shots, say no and then come and get me. Or Ollie.”

“Where is he?” She asks craning her neck to look for her partner. “I haven’t seen him all night.”

“I imagine he’s getting busy with Laurel in a spare bedroom somewhere,” Tommy replies almost bitterly. “But I’m sure that’s another story entirely.”

She tries to ignore the way her stomach drops and the tears that well up in her eyes and the way her heart feels so completely sad. She tries to ignore the tiny little voice in the back of her head that keeps telling her that Oliver will leave just like everyone else. She tries to ignore the even smaller voice in the back of her head that keeps telling her that Oliver will never love her the way she probably loves him.

She takes three tequila shots five minutes later on a dare from Tommy who had taken one look at her and decided she needed to let loose. She doesn’t remember much from the rest of the night, just that the first night she was drunk was the first night she felt her heart break.

(It’s also the first time Oliver realises he’s truly made a mistake, however he doesn’t know how to fix it so life goes on. Until it doesn’t.)

**


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Be prepared for angsty teenage angst. I'd apologise but I also don't care that much because it's super fun to write. ENJOY!

The first time Felicity properly gets hurt on the ice, it’s all his fault. They’d been attempting a new lift when he let her go to soon and she crashed to the ice with the most sickening sound he’s heard in his life. He feels like he can’t breathe, like all the air in the room has totally left his body. He doesn’t even want to turn to face her, scared he’ll see something he won’t be able to forget. But he has to turn, he has to find her and see her and he has to know that she’s okay.

She isn’t.

She’s lying completely still, facedown on the ice, one of her legs at an awkward angle, one arm tucked underneath her and the other splayed out on the ice. Then there’s the blood. It’s a small pool, just under her head, that mixes with the water from the ice.

Vaguely he hears Coach Merlyn rushing onto the ice with the rink doctor just behind him. He can see Tommy in the stands, face pressed against the glass, and Laurel and Sara watching from afar. He wants to move but he just can’t get his body to cooperate with his brain.

He hears words like concussion and broken leg, or maybe it’s an arm, and the ambulance is on its way. The whole time, he can feel his throat swell shut and he struggles to breath. His entire body frozen still, he doesn’t know what to do.

He doesn’t start breathing again until Felicity’s mom turns up at the hospital and takes him to see Felicity. The doctors had said she had a concussion and couldn’t go home, and her legs broken in three places so competing for the rest of the season is out.

The first thing he notices when he enters Felicity’s hospital room is how small she looks. It sounds like a total cliché but looking at his tiny little partner, hooked up to all the hospital machines and her leg in a cast that looks too big, it’s possibly the most honest thing he’s thought of all day.

“Oh, my baby!” Donna exclaims, taking Felicity’s limp hand in hers. “What happened Oliver? How does this happen?”

He shrugs apologetically. “I don’t remember.” He whispers, moving to the other side of Felicity’s bed. “It was a lift we’ve done a million and one times.”

“But she fell?”

“I think I dropped her,” Oliver admits, unable to meet Donna’s eyes. Donna was the closest thing he had to family most of the time. His parents, though they threw money at his ice dancing didn’t really approve of it. They were still holding out hope that he would change his mind and start working for the family company. Donna however, was possibly his and Felicity’s biggest supporter. She came to every event, every practise as long as it didn’t interfere with her work. The idea that he was the reason Donna’s daughter was lying in a hospital bed severely injured tripled the amount of guilt Oliver was feeling.

“Oh Oliver,” Donna whispers, taking his hand with her spare hand. “I know she wouldn’t blame you. It was probably just an accident.”

Oliver nods mutely, stroking this thumb over Felicity’s hand. “Do you mind if I stay with her until she goes home?”

“Of course not, you can help me with my costume designs for next year,” Donna tells him in a falsely hopeful voice. “She might not be able to compete this year but you can bet she’ll be back as soon as she can.”

**

Her first day of rehab is the first time she fights with Oliver. It’s a stupid fight and she really hadn’t meant it but suddenly she’s telling him to get lost and leave her alone, she’s saying that she never wants to see him again and she hates the idea of going back to skating because she doesn’t trust him anymore. She can see the way the light dims from Oliver’s eyes and he simply nods before climbing back in his car and driving off.

Rehab sucks almost as much her fight with Oliver and by the time she gets home, she’s exhausted. Which means her mom wants to have a chat.

“Oliver dropped some stuff off of yours this afternoon. Mostly just your locker stuff from the rink, but also some stuff you must have left with him,” Donna tells her, placing the box on the bed next to where she’d fallen the moment she’d walked into her room. “You wanna tell me what’s going on? Oliver said you were quitting?”

“I am.”

“Felicity!”

Felicity rolls her eyes in frustration. “Mom, I can’t skate for at least another six months and even then we’re going to be so far behind everyone else because I’m missing an entire competition season.”

“I wasn’t talking about your leg I was talking about you and Oliver,” Donna says. “We both know that boy has given up so much to skate with you and now you don’t want to skate with him?”

“He dropped me mom, literally on my head and literally so hard that I broke a leg and had a grade three concussion, all because he was too busy making eyes with Laurel Lance!” All the emotions of the last few weeks bubble to the surface and tears sting her eyes. “We promised, he promised and he broke that promise and mom I don’t trust him anymore and I don’t want to skate with someone who I don’t trust.”

Donna sighs, pulling Felicity into her arms. “Sweetheart, do you like Oliver as more than just friends?”

“What?” She exclaims pulling away to look at her mother as though she had a third head. “Of course not, he’s basically my best friend. I don’t have time to like anyone like that!”

“Okay, well,” Donna begins. “Maybe, you should talk to Oliver about what happened because the way I heard it from Malcom and Oliver, it was just an accident.”

“Mom I’m really tired, and I don’t want to talk about this anymore,” she complains. She buries her face in the pillow as her mom hums in agreement.

“Okay, I’ll start dinner then.”

**

His first day back at the rink after his fight with Felicity he feels empty. Normally when Oliver walks into the rink he’s got a chattering brunette by his side, telling him about whatever TV show she watched last night, or how fast she pulled apart and put back together her mom’s old shitty computer. This time there’s silence. It’s disconcerting.

Once he’s got his skates on he makes his way the rink where Tommy, Laurel and Sara are all waiting with Malcom.

“Thank you for joining us, Oliver. It’s certainly strange to not see Ms. Smoak with you, but just because she’s out of the competition season doesn’t mean you’re out so I’m partnering you with Sara until further notice,” Malcom tells the group of teens gathered around him. Sara sends a small smile his way but he still just feels wrong.

“If I’m not skating with Felicity, I don’t want to skate at all,” he says finally once he’s mulled over his options. “I’ll still come and train but I just, she’s my partner and I don’t want to skate without her. Or I’ll help her with her rehab.”

“Oliver, don’t make a rash decision, if you don’t compete this year you’ll break your stride,” Malcom starts to say.

“My stride is already broken because I dropped my partner,” Oliver retorts. “I’m out. For the season.”

As soon as he changes out of his skates, he legs it to his car, driving straight for Felicity’s house. He doesn’t know what he’s going to say, or how she’s going to react, but he knows that he doesn’t want to leave her alone when she’s probably scared and nervous and probably doesn’t like him a whole lot.

The moment he pulls up at their house he knows something is wrong. He doesn’t know what it is but he feels his stomach drop.

He realises why when he knocks on the door and Donna answers with tear stained cheeks and watery eyes.

“Oh Oliver,” she whispers. “You just missed her.”

Missed what? He tilts his head in confusion, the pieces not coming back together right. “What are you talking about, I just wanted to see Felicity, I didn’t think she had rehab today.”

“She’s gone Oliver,” Donna tells him. “She decided to finish her rehab Boston. She’s going to MIT for the year. She called them the other day to see if the offer for her full ride was on the table and it was so she left this morning. Felicity won’t be back until Christmas.”

He doesn’t know what to say. In the last almost ten years he and Felicity hadn’t spent more than a few days apart at a time. Now the idea that he won’t see her for almost six months absolutely terrifies him more than he’d ever thought he could admit.

“That’s okay, I just wanted to talk, I’ll give her a call later,” Oliver says, as if trying to assure himself.

Donna silently holds up Felicity’s phone. “Oliver, she said she wanted a fresh start. I didn’t even realise that she left it behind but she said she’d call on her new phone when she’s settled. I think she just wants some space Oliver.”

Right.

Space.

Felicity wanted space and clearly didn’t want to talk to him, or have anything to do with him.

He'd screwed up big time.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh heyyyyyy, it's been a while and I'm super super sorry. I just started at uni again and I'm trying desperately not to loose motivation and drop out again so I've not had a lot of time to update!!
> 
> This chapter mostly features angst and more angst and Oliver being Ollie because Felicity isn't around. 
> 
> Also total disclaimer aside from the fact that my mother is a physical therapist, I literally know nothing about sports injuries hence why we gloss over that very quickly. 
> 
> Enjoy!!

Felicity loves MIT. She hates it almost as much. But she loves MIT. And she likes her physical therapist, Paul and his partner Curtis. The pair become her first two friends and they help her get settled. But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t miss Starling. She misses her mom most of all, and she can’t help but miss Oliver also. They’d been friends for years and to have him not be by her side during this transitioning part of her life, is odd and feels wrong. But she knows she won’t be skating for a while and Oliver doesn’t deserve to have to drag her dead weight around with him.

In that vein, she doesn’t even know if she wants to continue skating. Her accident had shaken her in ways that previous injuries hadn’t before. She knows that deep down somewhere that it was an accident, she knows that Oliver would never have wanted to hurt her, and that she can’t blame him for having a crush on Laurel. She knows all of these things, but it’s like there’s a block in her brain when it comes to skating.

Skating with Oliver required emotion and feeling and she didn’t know how to deal with all of that right now. MIT and rehab, they made sense. She could compartmentalise those things.

“Earth to Felicity?” Curtis asks, waving a hand in front of her face. “You okay?”

She shakes her head to clear her thoughts and focuses her attention on Curtis. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Okay good, because I was thinking about your skating stuff right,” he starts a hopeful look on his face and she swallows down the grimace to give him a semi reassuring smile. “I can help with your come back.”

“Curtis I’ve only been out for a month, and I’m nowhere near a comeback. I just want to focus on getting better before I think about a comeback,” she tells him softly, squeezing his hand. “But thank you for caring.”

“Well, when you’re ready, I’ve got some ideas.” She nods in reply before spinning laptop around to show him her latest code.

She can totally do this whole living away from home thing, she tells herself as Curtis starts to babble again.

**

It’s weird going back to school without Felicity. She’d been moved up two grades when they’d first started skating together and she’d basically held his hand and forced him into AP classes with her through most of high school. Not only had she been his partner on the ice, she’d helped him through school without complaint.

And now she was gone.

Because of him.

In the month since she’d left, the guilt he felt hadn’t subsided at all. No matter how many times Donna had tried to talk to him about Felicity or Tommy told him it wasn’t his fault, whenever he closed his eyes he could still see Felicity laying still on the ice, blood pooling around her head. The sight was firmly scared into her brain.

“Hey Ollie, when is Felicity gonna come and hang out with us again?” Thea asks. She climbs onto the couch next to him grabbing the remote out of his hand and changing the channel to some cartoon he’s never heard of before. “I miss her.”

“Speedy, Felicity, she uh- she’s moved away, she won’t be hanging out with us for a while,” Oliver tells Thea. “She got hurt really badly because of me and she broke her leg so she can’t skate with me.”

Thea looks at him blankly. “But she’s Felicity. She can’t leave you to skate by yourself. If you’re by yourself you’ll just turn into an egg head like Tommy and play ice hockey or something gross.”

“I’m not going to play hockey Thea, don’t worry.”

Thea pouts at him. “But I’m worried, because I love Felicity and she was meant to be my big sister when you guys got married!”

“Well, we’re not going to get married Thea we’re a little young for that.”

“But Ollie,” Thea whines clambering into his lap to get his full attention. “You need to make Felicity come back. And how is she going to get better if you’re not helping with her?”

“She wants to get better without my help, so I’ve gotta let her get better without my help Speedy,” Oliver flicks the channel back over to the movie he’d been watching. “Now, let me finish this movie and then I’ll take you out for ice-cream.”

Thea seems to accept the change of subject and settles by his side in an instant. However she’s already started a line of questioning he doesn’t really want to think about but can’t seem to help himself. The urge to do _something_ to find out how Felicity is has Oliver ready to bolt upstairs and start using the computer she built for him. But then the thought of her enjoying her life in Boston more than she enjoyed skating with him crosses his mind and his gut feels heavy.

When had things become so complicated.

**

She skates for the first time since her accident three months into her recovery time. She’s so excited the night before that she almost calls Oliver so they can celebrate this achievement together. In the end she’s glad she didn’t. It turns out to be a complete bust and she ends up doing more damage to her knee than as there before.

She doesn’t react the same as the last time she was injured. Before she wallowed, now she uses her inability to skate to focus on her school work.

When she gets straight A’s for the semester a small –though it seemed to be getting bigger every day- part of her was almost glad that she had to be sidelined from skating.

**

“I’m so sorry, Oliver, but Felicity isn’t coming home for Christmas.”

Donna’s words ring in his ears even as he downs tequila shot after tequila shot.

Sure, Felicity was Jewish and didn’t really do Christmas, but Christmas was still their thing and it would be the first time in almost ten years that she wouldn’t be present at his parents big Christmas party.

He knows that the alcohol is going to his head, the most obvious sign being that there’s two Tommy’s sitting next to him, but that and the fact that there’s a pretty blonde who looks just like Felicity standing in front of him with a hand high up on his thigh don’t seem to register.

When he wakes up the next morning there’s a note on the pillow.

_My name wasn’t Felicity._

**

She starts her third semester at MIT with the sudden realization that she hasn’t skated in almost a year. More importantly, she hadn’t skated with Oliver in almost a year. Of course she cares less about the skating and more about the not seeing Oliver, but she quickly tells her brain to shut up with that because honestly, she’s been gone almost a year and she should really be focusing on everything else but her silly childhood crush.

Which would be great in theory but doesn’t work out so well in real life.

Especially when Tommy Merlyn and Oliver Queen show up on her door step a leotard and pair of skates in hand.

**Author's Note:**

> If you wanna fangirl some more with me about Olicity or Virtuemoir, leave a comment or come and follow me on twitter at jasminemai14.


End file.
